Communities of Practice

The BRIDGE Story: Learning through Communities of Practice

Description of BRIDGE’s approach to running and managing communities of practice for its different focus areas over 14 years, consolidating key features through graphics. It sets out foundational concepts and principles, as well as facilitation and knowledge management methodologies and implementation systems. It includes discussion of the outcomes expected from the BRIDGE communities of practice, how to action these, and how to use these communities of practice to support collaborative efforts. Key lessons learned about communities of practice, their membership and successful delivery as well as sustainability in changing contexts (including Covid-19) over the years are shared.

Knowledge Product Type:

Report

Use Case:

Developed after BRIDGE’s closure in the interests of promoting growth in understanding the power of communities of practice and their impacts. It will be relevant to those researching the role of communities of practice in educational innovation and interventions, as well as to those designing interventions which include communities of practice (or professional learning communities) as programme drivers.

Source and Date:

January 2024. Compiled by Melissa King, BRIDGE Knowledge Manager, with input from John Gilmour and Barbara Dale-Jones as BRIDGE founding agents.

Published:

2024

Author:

Karel

Changing Perspectives on Communities of Practice: Reflections on BRIDGE experiences in the time of Covid-19

A thought piece charting the move from in-person communities of practice to online meetings due to the onset of Covid-19 in 2020, and the impact this had on the nature of community of practice activities. Significant changes due to online dynamics and, critically, to the profile and size of each community, had implications for the nature of member interactions. Some reflections on what differentiates communities of practice meetings from webinars are shared.

Knowledge Product Type:

Learning Brief

Use Case:

Useful for those researching the growth, development and changing protocols of online communities, or for those implementing online communities of practice.

Source and Date:

BRIDGE November 2020. Compiled by Melissa King, drawing on survey responses from BRIDGE Community of Practice members.

Published:

2020

Author:

Karel

A Guide to Managing Communities of Practice

Practical step by step guide to setting up, running, managing , facilitating and documenting CoPs, offering generalised strategies for CoP convenors.

Knowledge Product Type:

Guidelines and Tools

Use Case:

Useful for groups of individuals or organisations intending to run (or currently running) communities of practice for different purposes in any contexts.

Source and Date:

BRIDGE April 2019. Still in use.

Published:

2019

Author:

Karel

Communities of Practice: A Manual for Facilitators of the BRIDGE Way

A manual for facilitators of communities of practice, including training activities, reflective activities and case studies. This manual was specifically developed for facilitators of BRIDGE’s Principals Communities of Practice, that is, a homogenous group of participants rather than a multi-stakeholder membership.

Knowledge Product Type:

Guidelines and Tools

Use Case:

Useful for anyone wishing to build facilitation capacity for communities of practice (or professional learning communities), or reflecting on their own facilitation skills in this context.

Source and Date:

BRIDGE November 2016

Published:

2016

Author:

Karel

BRIDGE Communities for Effective Practice

Seminal founding document for BRIDGE, setting out detailed conceptual underpinnings and the rationale for BRIDGE communities of practice and their processes.

Knowledge Product Type:

Report

Use Case:

Relevant for anyone interested in the theory and practice of communities of practice. Subsequent BRIDGE resources on communities of practice drew on this founding document, and documented changes and lesson learned through ongoing implementation.

Source and Date:

BRIDGE July 2011

Published:

2011

Author:

Karel

Communities of Practice

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